Turtle Beach Video Advantage: Moving everything to DVD

Converting video from VHS and various camcorder formats to DVD has long been a hit-or-miss proposition. Capture cards come in several varieties, including TV tuner cards with video inputs, similar products with the tuner removed, and more recently, ordinary IEEE-1394 FireWire cards with a cheap video capture suite. High-end products have usually been beyond the price range of average consumers, leaving a large market mostly open to several small players.

Well known for their conservatively-priced sound cards of exceptional quality, Turtle Beach now promises that same value with a new line of video capture cards: the Video Advantage. Let's consider whether exceptional value really is the true advantage of their Video Advantage PCI.

Hardware

The Video Advantage PCI offers IEEE-1394, S-Video and Composite Video inputs via both front and rear connections. A 5.25" drive bay panel of painted steel construction adds a microphone and USB connection. Both audio capture and microphone functions pass though rear ports for connection to soundcard inputs, while the USB port connects directly to the motherboard with an included cable.

Audio outputs, video inputs, and two IEEE-1394 FireWire ports are found on the back

The front panel adds audio, microphone and USB to the inputs found in the rear

A Conexant decoder does the data conversion, while TI handles IEEE-1394 duties and PLX negotiates traffic.